The Environmental Zone

Area

What area does the environmental zone cover and how can I recognise it?

The environmental zone covers the centre of Berlin inside the S-Bahn ring ("Großer Hundekopf"). This has an area of approximately 88 km². The area is particularly closely built-up. Around one million of the 3.4 million inhabitants of Berlin live here. The environmental zone is indicated by traffic signs (sign 270.1) at the approach roads. These are located primarily at the bridges and underpasses of the S-Bahn railway. The graphic above shows the signs for the Berlin environmental zone. As the small additional sign indicates, only vehicles with a green sticker are allowed to drive.

You can use the map below to check which streets or postcodes are part of the environmental zone:

A number of roads within the S-Bahn ring are not part of the environmental zone and remain freely accessible, allowing the environmental zone to be avoided by vehicles without a green sticker without their having to make a lengthy detour. These are, in particular, the southern part of the city highway with the relevant access roads and Elsenbrücke across the Spree with its feeder roads. By the same token, one road located outside the inner S-Bahn ring – Kanzow-Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg – had to be included for traffic-related reasons. The following maps show the boundaries of the environmental zone: